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Star series shows how government should put families with mentally ill parents first, says Children and Youth Services Minister Eric Hoskins.

Children and Youth Services Minister Eric Hoskins says the recent Star series on children with mentally ill parents "provides important guidance for how a government should look at mental health." (ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Joanna SmithOttawa Bureau

Tues., Oct. 16, 2012

OTTAWA—Ontario cabinet minister Eric Hoskins says a Star series about the children of parents with mental illness shows how the provincial government should focus on families as it improves the mental health system.

“There is no question in my mind that what you have highlighted over the past weekend provides important guidance for how a government should look at mental health, that it can’t simply look at individuals,” Hoskins, the provincial minister for children and youth services, told the Star on Monday.

The Star stories described the challenges faced by children whose parents live with mental illness and showed how they often fall through the cracks in the health and social systems.

“We need to realize and acknowledge that mental illness and mental health challenges don’t just affect the individual,” said Hoskins, who is also a physician. “They affect the family, friends, neighbours and co-workers.”

The first phase of the Ontario mental health strategy involves a three-year plan to improve mental health services for children and youth. The 2011 provincial budget included $257 million over the same period for child and youth mental health. Hoskins said much of that is going to fund community organizations that tackle mental health in a holistic way.

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Irwin Elman, the Ontario advocate for children and youth, argued that nothing less than a redesign of the system from the bottom up is needed to ensure that families living with mental illnesses get support.

“I think the opportunity, with this look at how we spend our dollars and ... talk about doing (things) differently, is: set some goals for ourselves and redesign. It’s tough, right, because that’s real change. Real change is really hard to do, but I think it’s possible and I’m hopeful that we take that opportunity.”

Elman, who is mandated by the province to advocate on behalf of those in the child welfare system, said he discussed the Star series with a few young people whose parents live with mental health issues to get their thoughts on how the system could be more responsive to their needs.

One of them was Arthur (A.J.) Gallant, 22, who was placed in care when he was 9 after spending several years caring for his mother, who has an intellectual disability.

Gallant found the transition from heading his household back into “childhood” jarring and believes he would not have been removed from home if he and his mother had access to services that suited their special situation.

“Having a very young child care for a parent is unconventional in the eyes of society, but what I think the system doesn’t realize is that as unconventional as that may be, the family is actually worse off if the child is removed from the home,” Gallant told the Star from Burlington, where he now lives with his mother.

According to the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, child welfare agencies in the province fully investigate about 85,000 of the 168,000 calls they receive each year. There were about 17,000 children in care as of March 31.

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